Mikkel deMib, a personal brand

Mikkel deMib is a personal brand you can learn a lot from. He has made an international name for himself by becoming really good at a very small field. Then he has used that position to become a big name in a much broader field in Denmark. It is a story about focus, visibility and sharing what you know.

In this video from 4 March 2010, I talk about Mikkel as one of the speakers at Aminotastic on 27 March in Køge. He will tell his story in more detail on the day. Here is my preview of why I think he is an inspiring role model.

A personal brand starts with a clear focus

Mikkel is good at several different things. My impression is that he used to be less focused, and that this held him back from major success. At some point, that changed. I do not know exactly what made him choose his focus, but I hope to hear more when he tells the story.

When I began getting to know him, he was interested in search engine optimisation. This was back in the 1990s, when it was still quite an unusual field to work in. If you knew a bit about the internet, you could imagine it becoming big. But Mikkel did not just want to be good at the work. He also wanted an international name.

That would be hard to achieve simply by saying he could do search engine optimisation in general. There were other talented people out in the world. So he specialised in one small corner: search engine optimisation for dynamic pages.

From dynamic pages to an international name

A dynamic page can be created by a website retrieving information from a database and putting the page together when someone visits it. The question was how to optimise those kinds of pages for search engines. Mikkel studied that and became really good at it by reading and learning everything he could find on the subject.

As I remember the story, he got in touch with the people behind a large American search engine forum. I think Danny Sullivan was involved, but I am not certain of the precise connection or the forum’s name. What matters is that Mikkel became a moderator of the section about dynamic pages because he knew so much about them.

At the time, the field was small. But gradually there were more dynamic pages, and more people needed answers. Mikkel became the person people noticed and asked. His little niche grew while he became known as one of its leading experts.

That led to invitations to conferences. He might get 45 minutes to stand up and talk about his speciality. One invitation followed another, and more people in the industry got to know him. At the time of the video, he often speaks in places including London and the US.

A narrow position can open up a broader market

Mikkel also knows a lot about search engine optimisation in general. Internationally, there are other experts who are just as good in the broader field. But gaining an international name in his small niche gave him a very strong position in Denmark.

Here, he became known as the search engine expert you could call if you wanted your website optimised more generally. That is the clever part of the story: He took a small piece of a large field, made it his speciality and built a name on it. That position gave him both international work in the speciality and broader work at home.

I find that he is in demand and well paid for what he knows. And I think there is a lot to learn from how he built that position.

The red suit and the answers he shares

Why does Mikkel appear in a bright red suit? Because not many other people do. He stands out, which makes him easier to remember. It is one of the classic branding techniques he has used very deliberately.

But the suit does not stand alone. He also demonstrates his expertise in various forums and shares his knowledge. Some people ask how he has time to spend a couple of hours a day on Amino if he can charge several thousand kroner an hour for his work. My answer is that it is also his marketing.

He learns things himself by taking part, he helps others and he establishes his authority. It also shows confidence and generosity when he has the time and inclination to give useful answers. That is how I see his combination of expertise, helpfulness, speaking and a recognisable appearance.

If you want to know how he has done it in practice, he is coming to tell the story at Aminotastic. I describe his development as the journey from a relatively unknown programmer to an internationally recognised name in about five years. A lot of concrete choices and work lie behind that story. Also read Skab din egen succes about finding your own way and using what you are good at.

Aminotastic was cheap because people helped for free

The invitation is for the event in 2010. The price of 175 kroner was not a misprint, nor a sign of poor quality. I was going to speak for an hour myself, Mikkel for around 20–25 minutes, and the others included Stig Severinsen and Henriette from Toothless Tiger.

We lost money on the event. But we had decided to do it for the entrepreneurs, both to strengthen Amino and to help Danish entrepreneurs move forward. A lot of talented people took part for free, which allowed us to keep the price down.

I mention that I normally charge 35,000 kroner for a talk. If 200 people attend, you can see for yourself what it would do to the ticket price if everyone charged their normal fee. On top of that, we had to pay for the venue, equipment and a tapas menu that alone cost us 110 kroner per person.

So the low price was down to support from people who wanted to help. It was an opportunity to hear their experiences and meet other entrepreneurs. And Mikkel’s story was one I was particularly looking forward to hearing more about.

World-famous in just 5 years: Hear how he did it. Best wishes, Martin

Location:N Federal Hwy,Boca Raton,USA